Fresh from doing a showcase headlining set at the big 2016 DMC World DJ Championship Finals in London a week ago (where, as pictured, Tony Prince awarded Qbert as a DMC Legend), the Invisibl Skratch Piklz (ISP) are in New York currently where they were at the Maker Faire NYC in Queens over the weekend and later today (Monday October 3rd) headline the Highline Ballroom. At tonight's 8pm (door 7pm) show at the Chelsea district venue the ISP will perform their new album The 13th Floor (avail on vinyl in Amoeba stores): similarly to how they did at their recent in-store at Amoeba Berkeley and at other concerts on their ongoing globe trotting turntable tour. Tonight's show in New York City by the Bay Area's premiere turntablist ambassadors, featuring D-Styles, Shortkut, and Qbert, will be an extra special one since the opening act will be none other than the X-Ecutioners.

Formerly known as the X-Men, with whom the Piklz famously battled it out back in 1996, the X-Ecutioners feature Rob Swift, DJ Precision, Boogie Blind, and Mista Sinista. Perhaps tonight they will do a recreation of that legendary crew battle from 20 years ago, or maybe a dedication to the late great "grandmaster" Roc Raida of the famed NYC DJ crew. However confirmed for tonight is an exhibition battle between Killa-Jewel (Canadian Thre3Style Finalist) and DJ Perly (2016 NYC DMC champ and 2016 DMC US Finals runner up). Tonight's must-see show, which will be hosted by Statik Selektah, will also feature an all 45's set by DJ Shortkut, Tix and more info. As widely publicized, at another NYC concert last night, Kanye West cut short his set abruptly during the Meadows Music and Arts Festival during which time he told a loudly disappointed audience that, "I'm sorry, family emergency....I have to stop the show!" This announcement came upon him hearing that his reality star wife, Kim Kardashian, had reportedly been robbed at gunpoint in Paris. France. No word so far as to whether West, whose most recent album releases include this year's The Life of Pablo and 2013's Yeejus, will return to finish that shortened concert set.

Skilled Bay Area competitive turntable artist DJ Traps, who won last month's 2016 USA DMC Finals at the New Parishin Oakland (scroll down for full review), is now consequently over in London, England for tomorrow's big 2016 DMC World DJ Championship Finals. There he will represent the USA in the prestigious global DJ competition against the national champions from seventeen different countries including Japan, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, China, Brazil, Canada, and the hosting UK. Despite some stiff competition, Traps is considered a favorite. He possesses all the necessary qualities for winning the new DMC World title.

Another California DJ representing the USA, will be LA's Etronik who won the 2016 DMC US Supremacy Champion title. Also in from Cali will be the Invisibl Skratch Piklz' D-Styles, Shortkut, and Qbert. The Bay Area DJ trio will be doing a headlining performance of their new LP The 13th Floor, like they did at Amoeba Berkeley recently. The Sept 24th day long (2pm - 11pm) event takes place at The Forum on Highgate Road in Kentish Town where it will be hosted byInja and Billy Biznizz. Among the day's many performers will be Killa Kela & The Spitkingdom Soundsystem, and ever creative UK DJ Woodywho'll be previewing tracks off his upcoming album The Point Of Contact. Woody will also join DJ Fong Fong in teaching a DJ Workshop. Other hip-hop workshops will include a PopMaster Fabel curated one on popping and locking by the visiting Rocksteady Crew legend. More DMC World DJ Championship Finals info here and / or see flyers below.

TheInvisibl Skratch Piklz, featurnig the talented trio of DJs Qbert, D-Styles and Shortkut, did a mind blowing in-store set followed by a meet-and-greet for a packed-to-capacity Amoeba Music Berkeley on Saturday evening. Coinciding with the pioneering Bay Area turntablist crew's anticipated soon-to-drop new album,The 13th Floor on Galactic Butt Hair, they effortlessly delivered a jaw-dropping, next-level turntable manipulation performance to wild loud applause. All the more impressive of their half-hour set, was that it was a flawless, pitch-perfect reworking of the reunited group's new nine track LP. Note that the album does not officially get released until Friday (September 9th) but Amoeba shoppers had the opportunity to buy it early and get the record signed too. The unprecedented huge crowd turnout not only packed the jazz-room performance area of the Telegraph Ave. store but spilled into the next room too with fans eager to catch in person these three local legends. In fact so many were jammed into Amoeba that some fans went back outside onto the street to peer through the window for a glimpse of these living legends. Most fans of the Piklz thought would never perform again after they broke up at their peak back up in the late nineties.

"If I was to end all this tomorrow and I had an album, then I would be happy," DJ Shortkutconfided when I caught up with the hardworking, highly respected, and diversely talented San Francisco DJ in his hometown this week. Feeling "exhausted" but with a wide smile on his face, the heavy in-demand globe-trotting DJ, who is booked on average 4 to 5 nights a week, was just back home in the States from Asia where he's been spending a lot of time in recent months including at Red Bull Thre3Style events with the recently reunited Invisibl Skratch Piklz (ISP), along with Qbertand D-Styles, with whom he recorded the anticipated album The 13th Floor. Despite the fact that he was honored with the Grand Wizard Theodore Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the development of scratching & DJ culture, and that he holds membership of three of the most revered turntablist ensembles in the history of the genre - ISP, The Beat Junkies, and Triple Threat DJs (with Vinroc and Apollo) - and has recorded with each of them, plus released a stack of his own amazing solo DJ mixes encompassing hip-hop and dancehall and other styles, he has never released a DJ Shortkut album. But that is all about to change the Daly City DJ born Jonathan Cruz told me this week following an impressive turntable set he threw down at Guitar Center on Van Ness celebrating the launch of Thud Rumble and DJ Qbert's TRX Scratch Mixer.

Late yesterday afternoon, within an hour of landing at JFK following a long flight in from Japan where he was at the big Red Bull World DJ Championship week-long event, DJ Qbert showed no signs of jet-lag but was in surprisingly good form as he pulled his compact suitcase across the grass grounds of the New York Hall of Science in Queens where this weekend the World Maker Faire NY 2015 takes place. The hard working, pioneering turntablist who has been the leading ambassador of skratch music for the past two decades, has had one of his busiest years to date. Still satisfying fans' demand to hear and see him perform tracks live from his acclaimed new album Extraterrestria (and its spinoff GalaXXXian), the San Francisco DJ born Richard Quitevis has been on a seemingly non-stop globetrotting trek of concerts and showcase performances. Now, back on US soil this weekend along with his fellow Thud Rumble crew of forward thinking tech gear designers (Yogafrog, Hard Rich, Charles Angeles Jr.), he is at the big Maker Faire NY.